The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-05-12
A Fallacloua Statement.

The specious yet fallaci0us statements
made by men addressing the public through
the medium of the paess, to exaggerate
facts and comfort events. that fair adj
jus.ment of the debt question may not be
reached. are remarkable. in some in.
stances. A writer in recent number Of
the Wing, signing himself y. Med. -
however, surpasses all that we have seen
in the line of perversion and illogical con-
clusion. Referring to the desolations Of
the war, and the consequent impairment
of the resources Of the Commonwealth
this writer says: What the State suffered
and lost by the employment of physical
forces and the legitimate agencies Of war,
great as those sulferings and losses were,
could not have destroyed her ability to
meet her obligations to her public credi-
tors. 1t was the abolition and extinction,
by proclamation and statute, of the prop
erty of her people in slayes that SO i'm
paired as to virtually destroy her ability to
discharge these obligations.
The mple fact of the existence of chat
tel slavery by constitutional provision and
that it was abolished by violence, did not
affect the ability of the State to pay taxes.
We have the labor yet. 1t is true it is not
in the form of chattel slavery, but it is free
labor, and is as much wealth creating
agency rs it ever was. Slavery was not a
profitable institution. as it applied to in
dustries end development. The history
of Virginia demonstrates that it was a
positive obstruction to progress. While
we have material resources possessed by
gress in wealth and very little in popu-
lation. AS compared with other States
where free labor obtained, and where
the advantages were far inferior to those
we had, Virginia Jagged behind and re-
ceded from the front of the roll of
States to the eleventh before the institution
was abolished. The only way in which slave
ry was made profitable was by selling the
slaves las we would have sold tobacco grain,
horses, &c., to the highest bidder. To
have paid the State debt in that way would
have been with blood money. To think of
such method with the lights now before
us. would revolt the moral sense of chris
tendon. Virginia, as State. lost moth
ing by The emancipation of the slaves =
She is better off, financially, and more able
to meet her obligations, without chattel
slavery than she was with the barbarous
institution intact. 1t was only as labor
that the slaves were valuable to the Com
monwealth, and as labor they still exist
To offer plea such as -. Med" does
and which the Wing endorses, is delusive
may mislead, but will not bear investi-
J cation. 1t is plea or an excuse to es.
cape from responsibility, which. if there
was the courage to meet it. would dwindle
] into insigniGeance compared with the in
trinsic ability of the State to pay. Such
: fallacious statements as this correspondent
magnlfies into serious disaster are moi
} what should 60 before the people. The.
do not want any deceptive or exaggerated
summary of the States msfortunes, no.
3 will they have the effect upon the foreign
. commissioning whom they are addressed
3 that the writer thinks they will. 1t il
: not the square thing, however well ant
s honestly intended, and will cause Sir Ed
s ward Thornton to think little before b.
8 accepts any presentation that may be mad
to him of Virginia's poverty.